Stimulation of the respiratory burst of the neutrophils from healthy subjects by different Staphylococcus aureus concentrations

: Preopsonized live and heat-killed S. aureus stimulated, without the washing of serum, the luminol-dependent chemiluminescence of human neutrophils obtained from healthy donors. The intensity of chemiluminescence was evaluated by the index of stimulation with staphylococci, with due consideration for their concentration. With the microbe/phagocyte ratio equal to 10:1, these indices had the maximum values when both live and killed staphylococci were used. At high concentrations of staphylococci, especially live ones, all indices were low (those for live staphylococci had negative values) and uniform. As the concentration of the antigen decreased, individual features in the reaction of each donor became apparent. With the microbe/phagocyte ratio equal to 100:1, stimulation with live and killed staphylococci induced the identical fluorescence of neutrophils. The capacity of nonopsonized staphylococci for inducing chemiluminescence was poorly pronounced. For this reason, the test system using S. aureus at low concentrations was proposed for the prognostication of this infection, while the ratio 100:1 can be used for the evaluation of the opsonin-phagocytic system in case of a developed purulent process.